Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Merit Based Education & Emp

India is going through raging controversy about quotas and reservation in education and employment market. Let’s understand all aspects of the conflict with an open mind; we will be less likely to make a mistake. This change is going to affect us. NMay 27 2006 8:11PM comments rss:

MERIT BASED EDUCATION & EMPLOYMENTMike Ghouse

India is going through raging controversy about quotas and reservation in education and employment market. The Doctors have gone on hunger strike for over a week in New Delhi now opposing reservations. The Scheduled castes, Tribes and backward classes have never had a chance to come up in life. They are stuck in the vicious cycle, while the ones with Merit are facing barriers in moving forward. All of them have the same potential, but harnessing at different levels. The debate is about upping the reservations to a 49% of Job and education opportunities to the down trodden.

Once we bring every one to the starting line on the track, before we say Ready, Set and Go, we want to ensure that the competitors are indeed competitive. That determination comes from earlier regional and local competitions that have brought them to this point.

Let's think through some of the following questions:

What causes lava to erupt?

What causes a Tsunami?

What causes people to move away from flooding rivers?

What causes people to move out of their current neighborhoods?

What causes friction and feud in families and communities?

Now let's ask ourselves the following questions:

What makes people stop driving their car if air pressure is low in one tire?

What good comes out of filling the low pressure tire?

What happens if there is utter poverty on your street and you are doing fine?

What happens if you are enjoying eight varieties of food on your table, where others sitting

at the same table have none?

And let's look at these possibilities:

Why should I fill the one tire that is low in pressure? - Is that tire a BC/SC/ST/MBC/OBC member?Why should I share my delicious eight varieties of food with those at my table? Should they buy their own? What if there isn’t any left to be bought?Why should I be responsible for others? How did I get to be where I am, why can't they do the same?

Pay a little attention to these truths:

Whether we are atheist, agnostic or religious, we understand that when there is imbalance in the tectonic plates, it causes a Tsunami, when there is tremendous pressure under the earth crust, lava is going to erupt.

Whenever there is moral decay in a society, Krishna says, "I will create a person amidst you to bring morality back". Allah promises “Wherever a society has gone astray, I have sent a messenger to each nation, each community and each people". Indeed, every religion on the earth has given hope to mankind not to despair, there is light at the end of the tunnel. It makes the misery less burdensome.

And now, let’s recap from decreasing items numbers from 5 through 2 items and come to 1.

To keep a steady, sustainable growth for India that will not be a volcanic eruption, that will not generate a Tsunami, that will not lend itself to forced equality (communism?), that will give peace, security and stability for every one in the long haul.

We have to look at fine tuning the balance, that will facilitate all-round development, safety and security for all. We have to make a little sacrifice. Remember Charity is a requirement in all religions for the purpose of keeping the equillibrium. As Indians, we should not drop our political leanings, neither appease one party or the other, nor appease the well do or disadvantaged ones, but we have to drive our community bus with a safe pressure in all tires.

The Quota (reservation) conflict has been frustrating to me, and a few thoughts came to mind that may be worth looking into:

EDUCATION

To bring every one to the starting line, and then have them compete on their merits, we have to:Develop a grading system, like SAT in the United States or some such program.Establish, after giving appropriate weight, a minimum standard required, below which, every student would be required to attend special tuition and coaching classes to get them to the starting line.

This might encourage severe competition among the new equals, and every one would benefit from individual motivation to excel and be recognized.This will not choke the motivated ones or retard their progress.This can even be taken to the college level.Keep enhancing the level of competency rather than non-incentived upliftment

EMPLOYMENT

We have a chaotic, disproportionate employment situation in India, with an unemployed force bigger than the populations of some countries. We do not absorb all the qualified candidates into the job market as we produce them.

For many, there is a time lag between being ready for the job and actually starting on the job. To bring every one to the starting line, let’s provide low paying apprentice training for a year to those who do not meet the minimum merit standards and get them ready to compete with the upcoming fresh meritorious graduates… let merit win when all of them are trained to be equal.It is our responsibility to bring every one to the starting line, if we want a successful, stable and sustainable India.

It is not charity, it is safety and protection of the entire population and an investment to prevent a lava eruption, a Tsunami or a forced equality, which will doom us.

Here are some more thoughts, I had penned a few days ago: Every issue that comes up also brings conflict and subsequent divisions with it. Do we deal with them or ignore them?

Right from the earliest days when humans had to share resources, the animal in them warred and annihilated the competition. Then one day, when the suppressed woke up, they reversed it all.

Then humans learned the futility of annihilation. They figured, to be safe from future reversals, they better work towards a solution. They also realized that they could not delete the desires, wishes, hopes and spirit of the people.

Once the basic needs were met, and when we learned to produce food, the limitation of resources was gone and the need for conflict reduced.

Then a new conflict emerged: the wars of Moral conflict. There was no country concept at that time, so the clan was the nucleus, and the earliest recorded wars include the Babylonians, the Sumerians, Egyptians, Kauravas, Pandavas, Greeks, Romans and Han dynasties. Then came war between individual nations. A combination of several national interests produced the world wars.Let’s jump to the war of Ideas, ideas that affect the future. They are fought through dialogue. As we recognized that annihilation is not the way to go. You cannot kill me and I cannot kill you to solve the problem.

Let’s understand all aspects of the conflict with an open mind; we will be less likely to make a mistake. This change is going to affect us. No Indian should have an undue advantage over the other, if it does, it is not going to last. It will not be sustainable; it will explode or at least will be reversed in mid-stream when the politicians change.

The decisions will not affect you and me directly, but will affect the next two generations. Let’s be the partners in examining the consequences of the decisions and open ourselves to debate with others and within ourselves, and make responsible decisions.

I sincerely hope, that we don't take sides and earnestly learn how it will impact all of us in the long haul. We blame our present for the decisions made in the past, at least, as responsible citizens let's not give the future generation a chance to tell that we xucked up.

COMMUNITY IS A BUS

Each community, each nation and each faith is like a beautiful bus; when you plan to go somewhere, you make sure all its tires have the same amount of air pressure for it to run effectively, to give better mileage, lasting tire wear..... all the mechanical parts must be greased, all the parts must be checked for a safe, stable and sure journey.

We need to work together to ensure that every one is on par to ride the road of progress, we need to fill the tire if the pressure is inadequate, instead of asking the tire to fill itself. Whose loss is it if the tire does not fill itself? We have to help the communities that are at a disadvantage. We need to bring them to a well balanced, smoothly functioning society. Ignoring one tire or a community is an irresponsible thing for the bus journey.

Each one of us needs to be the 'source' of goodwill to bring that equilibrium. You and I are not safe if the world around us isn't. All change begins with you and me. And I pledge that whatever I do, I will do it to bind people together, and will be a source of goodwill.

It is the responsibility of each person in the world to make a better world. Each day we need to ask ourselves, what have we done today to make the world a better place?

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INDIAN HEROES

These are the men and women from among Hindus, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jews, and other traditions that are deeply committed to the idea of One India and one people acknowledging the uniqueness of each one of the Indians.

Their work brings people together, their effort is to restore harmony among Indians unlike some lost souls who are hell bent on pitting one Indian against the other.

Lord Krishna had said, whenever the negative forces become stronger in dividing families and disrupt peace and harmony, he will emerge among them to restore sanity, the same idea is reflected in Quran, that God does not deprive his goodness to anyone and sends a peacemaker to every community and nation. After the founding fathers of the nation, these are our real heroes restoring dharma – the righteousness. Dharma is when people get along, mind their own business, live their lives and let others live theirs. God has created all of us and respects each one of us is the highest form of worship.

I salute them for their work and they come from all walks of life. They see you as an Indian and nothing but an Indian. They believe every human should be free to eat, drink, wear or believe whatever he or she wants in the pursuit of their happiness.

Please share stories of such Indians who have made efforts to build a cohesive India, an India where no Indian lives in apprehension, tension or fear of the other.

INDIAN HEROES - NEW FROM 12/20/17

PATRIOTISM

Two of India’s dangerous trends: Misplaced Patriotism and intolerance towards different points of view.

The real heroes of India are those who relentlessly “criticize” the government because they do not want their government to falter and make decisions that will mess up the social structure of the nation. They keep the government rascals on their toes. After all, they are elected to serve us not the other way around. The real heroes rise the nation for the common good of all.

What do the Chamchas on the other hand do? They wear a false badge of patriotism and to them patriotism is oppression of those who differ, and war mongering. They cannot handle criticism of government, they are yes sir, yes sir I lick your chappals. They bring down the nation by keeping their man at helm in a bubble giving him or her false assurance that everything is alright.

I hope the Prime Minister wises up and invites and honors those who criticize him, they are the real supporters of him by reminding him from falling into the pit. He should welcome all those who criticize. He needs to defend the rights of such heroes. The Indian Citizens on the other hand need to make a conscious effort to support those who criticize the government, BJP or Congress or any one.

The test of a successful civilized nation is when every man and woman of India can breathe, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever the hell she or he wants to believe.

UPRIGHT BUREAUCRATS

These are the public service heroes; officers who go against their political bosses to do the right thing for India, i.e, every Indian. We will be developing the list as we go forward. You can send in your entries to MikeGhouseforIndia@gmail.com

UPRIGHT BUREAUCRATS

ABOUT MIKE GHOUSE

Mike Ghouse is committed to his life mission of building cohesive work places, communities and nations. His work is for the Indians and Americans where each one of the 322 million Americans should feel secure without apprehension or fear of the other.

He is one of the 5 people in the world who is actively pursuing research, activism and teaching the subject of Pluralism. Just Google and find a tremendous amount of work on pluralism in religion, politics, society and culture. Mike defines Pluralism as an attitude of “respecting the otherness of other” and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each one of us.

He is a pluralist, thinker, writer, activist and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, politics, Islam, human rights and foreign policy including India and Israel-Palestine. He is a news maker, interfaith wedding officiant and a community consultant and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Dr. Ghouse has appeared in over 300 National TV shows and is a frequent guest with Hannity and Varney shows at Fox News along with others. He has over 1000 hours of Radio Shows of which 700 were dedicated to interfaith and pluralism. Over 3500 articles have been published of which a 1000 were on politics, foreign policy, sports and movies, a 1500 for interfaith and pluralism matters and a 1000 plus on Islam. In addition Mike has conducted workshops on Atheist to Zoroastrian and every one in between.

Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is at www.Centerforpluralism.com and www.WorldMuslimCongress.org

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We are proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. India led the way to the freedom movement, since 1947 every country has been liberated from colonialism. Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers. Indians are inherently secular and economically capitalistic. They believe in "live-and-let-live" life style, which is the essence of capitalism.Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility.I am proud of my heritage and am proud to be an Indian-American. Please join me in the discovery of India on a daily basis, as time permits and share the wealth of knowledge you have on this forum.

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